The most consistently hilarious biweekly publication in the UK
... is, of course, OfCom Broadcast Bulletin.
We noted Channel 4‟s submission that it considered the ice sculpture to be an "an abstraction of a phallic image that is made of ice, rather than a facsimile of an 'erect' penis". We disagreed. In our view, the appearance and relative dimensions of the penis and scrotum depicted in the ice sculpture were highly likely to mean the ice sculpture would be perceived by members of the audience as being a depiction of an erect penis.
Also, equally and beautifully dry attempts to seriously consider the question of whether a general audience would expect the word "fuck" to be broadcast 41 times in six minutes at 0730, and whether Amanda Holden's involvement in a quality assurance scheme for solicitors might be other than purely promotional.
There's a sitcom here.
I think a lot of what OfCom are checking for, perhaps not by design, is basic competence. Programming the unedited version of that Fatboy Slim track at any time of day is just sloppy - and the C4 ice sculpture story seems like a similar example of the shovel-it-out approach to scheduling.
ReplyDeleteAdmittedly, I have been in Another Country since the rise of ubiquitous multichannel whatnot, but British channels seem remarkably incompetent at basic compliance. I can make certain allowances for the godbothery, ethnic and even the dirty-mac channels, because they're clearly being run by two people and a battered laptop to an audience of dozens, but E4? Really?
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